Nexon Reassigns The First Berserker: Khazan Team After the Game Fell Short of Commercial Expectations

The future of The First Berserker: Khazan has suddenly become much less clear. According to a new report from YNA, Nexon subsidiary Neople has reassigned a large portion of the game’s production staff after the title failed to deliver the level of commercial performance the company had hoped for. The Korean report says the move follows weaker than expected results after launch, with many staff members reportedly shifted into an internal reassignment organization, while Nexon maintains that this does not mean the Khazan development team has been formally dissolved.

That distinction matters, because the situation appears more nuanced than a simple cancellation or shutdown. In statements quoted by YNA, Nexon said the large scale Khazan project is now entering the completion stage of its roadmap, and that the company has decided to separate the organization responsible for finishing the remaining tasks from staff being assigned to other projects that need concentrated human resources. Nexon also said it plans to actively support those team members so they can move into other projects where their experience on a global AAA title can be used effectively.

Even so, the business signal is hard to ignore. YNA reports that The First Berserker: Khazan underperformed market expectations after launch, despite drawing close to 30,000 concurrent players on PC at one point, and adds that a delayed China release due to licensing issues further complicated the title’s trajectory. The report also says that plans once expected early in the release cycle, such as regular DLC and ports to other platforms, are now effectively uncertain.

This is also not the first sign that Khazan missed its sales targets. Back in May 2025, Nexon stated during an earnings related discussion that while the game’s Q1 revenue was below the company’s outlook, it still achieved a strategic objective as a first step in introducing the Dungeon and Fighter IP to a global audience. That framing was important at the time because it showed Nexon was already trying to balance financial underperformance against broader franchise value. GamesRadar highlighted that exact tension, noting that Nexon viewed the game as commercially below target but still meaningful for international brand building.

That message has not completely disappeared. In Nexon’s recent capital markets briefing materials, the company again pointed to Khazan as proof that Dungeon and Fighter can travel, while saying its upcoming China launch would help further validate the project’s long term potential. Although the specific quote is not surfaced in the main HTML page itself, it is reflected in current reporting and in Nexon’s briefing materials indexed online, showing that the company still sees strategic value in the title even as it reshuffles personnel internally.

That leaves Khazan in a difficult but interesting position. Creatively, the game clearly connected with a segment of action RPG and Soulslike players. Commercially, it did not do enough to justify keeping the project staffed at its previous scale. Strategically, Nexon still appears to believe the title helped test whether Dungeon and Fighter could find traction outside its traditional strongholds. Those 3 realities can all be true at the same time, and that is what makes this development more complicated than a simple failure story.

For now, the biggest question is what happens next. If a smaller completion team is still in place, there may yet be support work, operational wrap up, or some limited post launch follow through. But if most of the talent has already been redirected, then any sequel or major continuation may be much farther away than fans hoped. There is also the possibility that Khazan ends up as a one off experiment that helped Nexon learn how to position the Dungeon and Fighter universe for global audiences, without necessarily becoming a lasting sub series.

That would be a disappointing outcome for players who saw The First Berserker: Khazan as one of the stronger non FromSoftware Soulslike releases in recent memory. But from Nexon’s perspective, the company may simply be treating it as a strategically useful project that still did not justify its original scale once the market results came in.

Do you think Nexon should give Khazan a second chance later on, or is the company better off using what it learned to build a different global Dungeon and Fighter game?